WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Obama administration is boycotting the 10-year commemoration of a global conference to combat racism because previous meetings have included what it called "ugly displays of intolerance and anti-Semitism."

The first conference, which took place in 2001 in Durban, South Africa, focused in large measure on Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Delegates produced a draft resolution at the conference that equated Zionism with racism.FULL POST

Washington (CNN)–House Republican Budget chairman Paul Ryan directly challenged President Obama at a meeting with all House Republicans Wednesday, urging him to stop playing politics with Medicare and start leading on the issue of entitlement reform, according to Republican sources in the room.

The exchange came at a meeting at the White House with all House Republicans when Ryan told the president that he wasn't leading on the issue of Medicare and that leaders can either solve problems "or exacerbate them."FULL POST

(CNN) - A federal appeals court in Cincinnati expressed concern Wednesday over the sweeping health care reform law championed by President Barack Obama, especially the requirement that Americans purchase health insurance in coming years or face financial penalties.

The case could turn on either a broad reading of congressional power to regulate the health insurance market, or more mundane procedural issues. It is one of 30-some legal challenges nationwide to the health care reform effort, an issue that is certain to ultimately reach the Supreme Court, perhaps by year's end.

(CNN) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is under fire from opposition lawmakers over his use of a state police helicopter to travel with his wife to his son's high school baseball game.

The self-styled Republican budget hawk touched down near a New Jersey ball field Tuesday, landing him in hot water with legislators critical of his personal use of the vehicle, according to a spokesman for the governor.

New York (CNN) - Sarah Palin met with officials at Fox News in midtown Manhattan for over an hour on Wednesday.

After checking out of her Jersey City hotel earlier in the day for the fourth day of her "One Nation" bus tour, Palin told a gaggle of reporters that she was en route to Boston, but added: "I'm going to go talk to my bosses at Fox first, here, though. If we can make our way through the city in a big old bus."FULL POST

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) - White House adviser Elizabeth Warren's reward for dealing with a cantankerous House committee last week: Another even longer day with many of the same congressmen.

House Oversight Committee chair Darrell Issa asked Warren to come back for more questioning after the tense hearing, which ended abruptly when Warren left due to a previously scheduled event in her capacity setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Washington (CNN) - A new national poll indicates that a majority of Americans don't like what they've heard so far about congressional Republicans' plans to change Medicare.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, a majority also don't think the GOP has cooperated enough with President Barack Obama and, for the first time since they won back control of the House last November, the number of Americans who say that Republican control of the chamber is good for the country has dropped below the 50 percent mark.FULL POST